Shōyō Hinata
is the main protagonist of the Haikyū!! series by Haruichi Furudate. He is a first year student at Karasuno High and is one of the volleyball team's middle blockers. Hinata's dream is to become strong enough to spike past tall blockers, just like the Small Giant once did. However, since he lacks height for a middle blocker, he specializes in jumping to compensate. Appearance Hinata is "162.8 cm", making him the second shortest person on his team, next to Nishinoya. He has messy, orange hair and brown eyes. He has a relatively thin build and often gets mistaken for a junior high student. Hinata typically attires in his Karasuno school uniform with a black jacket and black pants. Beneath his jacket is a beige or tan sweatshirt. In the first episode, he wore the green volleyball uniform from his junior high. After joining Karasuno's Volleyball Club, Hinata wears his volleyball uniform–a black jersey and black shorts with white and orange stripes on the sides. On the back of his jersey is his position number 10 (coincidentally, the same number that was worn by the Small Giant) and his school's name written in kanji. On court, he wears kneepads and white volleyball shoes with red stripes. Personality Hinata has a cheerful and energetic personality. He is a natural schmoozer that his teammates occasionally use him to win someone over, Nishinoya for example. Hinata gets excited easily and often talks loudly; he is the loudest member after Nishinoya and Tanaka. He is friendly and can befriend the quietest of people easily, such as Kenma from Nekoma High and Aone from Date Tech High. As stated by Sugawara, Hinata has a very big fortitude to win and thus, doesn't give up easily during a match no matter if it's a practice match or a real match. Hinata can also exhibit a very intimidating face when people underestimate him. Despite that, Hinata gets scared easily, especially by larger and stronger opponents. However, he recovers quickly and will then confidently challenge the opponents. Hinata, like Kageyama, has bad grades since he too is preoccupied with volleyball. He once told Sugawara that ever since he'd entered high school, not once has he scored in the double digits on any of his tests. Statistics Hinata is often described as clumsy yet incredibly athletic. Before entering Karasuno High, he didn't know much about volleyball and would hit any spike he wanted, regardless of what type it was. However, with the help of his new teammates, he soon learned the fundamentals and techniques. Despite the training, Hinata would occasionally have his serves hit the net or have them received easily by opponents. He is not known as a powerful player, but rather one who utilizes speed and stamina to his advantage. However, above all, Hinata’s main assets are his fortitude and determination to win. Hinata often tries to learn from mistakes made in past matches, and can improve his skills merely by watching his opponents and teammates and trying to copy their movements (although most of the time he fails). Hinata is also one of the few players who possess the ability to see the entire width of the court. He has admitted that when he's spiking and he's over the net, he can see the movements his opponents make and even the expressions on their faces. Since the Tokyo Expedition Arc, Hinata’s overall skills have improved greatly. His agility was helped by the flying falls he did as punishment for his team’s losses and he now has better coordination on the court. Whenever he goes to save balls, he doesn't fly over and crash into the wall anymore; instead, he can change his footing and bounce off the wall or floor without much effort. He can also switch hand midway through a spike if the ball goes in the wrong direction. He also learned from the former Coach Ukai how to time himself with a toss and find different options if he receives a poor toss. In addition, he was taught several techniques by influential players in the camp and the former Coach Ukai, whom Hinata trained under as he was developing the new quick strike with Kageyama. In a mini-match against Lev, Tsukishima, and Kuroo, Hinata accidentally learned how to "block out" by himself when he spiked the ball off the tip of the tallest blocker Lev’s fingers. It would also seem that Hinata is only able to block out against significantly taller players at the moment, evidenced by the three times he's performed it. He successfully blocked out against both Lev and Kaukgawa's Hyakuzawa, both of whom were well both 30-40 cm above Hinata in height. Against Wakutani's Nakashima however, Hinata hit the ball way over his head, with Nakashima only above Hinata with 5-10 cm approximately. However, he can only use that technique if he pinpoints the blockers' hands. In addition, he learned how to feint–a useful tactic for surprising blockers–from the Fukurōdani ace Bokuto. He even manages to utilize this against both Johzenji and Aobajōsai, something both teams didn't expect him to be able to do; Hinata even rendered Matsukawa's strategy of narrowing his spike course limit useless since the latter didn't expect him to be able to use that against him. Stamina and Speed Hinata is known as the fastest player on his team and has incredible, seemingly unlimited stamina; he has stated that he built this by riding his bike thirty minutes through the mountain each morning to get to school. Hinata can easily go from the left side of the court to the right side before his opponents can even react. Jumping Hinata is considered short for a middle blocker. Because of this, many of his opponents (even the super ace Ushijima) and his teammates are surprised that he can easily jump very high. During the summer training camp, he learned how to jump diagonally using tempo from the older Coach Ukai. His jumping ability is also described as flying according to some opponent players. Decoy Since Hinata isn’t tall, many opponents underestimate him initially. However, they’re soon drawn to him when he and Kageyama use their quick strikes to easily score points. This method brings all the attention to Hinata, leaving the other players somewhat unguarded. When the opposing blockers are completely focusing on the quick strikes, the other players of Karasuno would strike and easily score points. For his successful role in this, Hinata is dubbed the "Ultimate Decoy". God Fast Spike Combination Hinata and Kageyama are sometimes called the "freak duo" due to Kageyama's incredibly quick toss and Hinata's complete trust in the setter. Kageyama would send the toss to Hinata at an extremely fast speed and Hinata would spike it with his eyes closed. This combo has evolved into many different types of attacks. Since the Tokyo Expedition Arc, Kageyama has changed his toss to a drop motion. Hinata also learned how to spike using tempo from the former Coach Ukai. The toss used to go straight at the perfect timing for Hinata to hit but now, the ball would go above Hinata's reach and then drop down to meet his hand. This allows Hinata to aim with the quick instead of having to close his eyes, giving him more options. During the Aobajōsai vs Karasuno match in the Spring High, Hinata discovered a new attack after he accidentally jumped too close to the net and Kageyama had to set the ball to that area. The ball was almost on top of the net, and Hinata spiked it straight down into an area where the blockers and libero couldn't reach in time. However, they don't use this technique often and save it for crucial moments of the matches. Hinata also developed a zero or minus-tempo quick attack as a weapon used against extremely tall opponents such as Yūdai Hyakuzawa. Minus Tempo Stop Toss Spike The new version of the God Quick Combo, it utilizes Kageyama's new stopping toss, Hinata's newly gained experience, and the same basic formation of the god quick. This version allows Hinata to have his eyes open during the god quick, making the aerial battle his to command. Kageyama first uses his stopping toss that halts for a moment right in the line of Hinata's spike, giving Hinata easy access to it and letting him decide what to do with it instead of simply hitting it straight down. This quick will most likely continuously evolve through the series as it has many different possibilities. Touch Spike An offset ability of Minus Tempo Stop Toss Spike of sorts, when Kageyama realizes that Hinata is too close to the net and had been blocked many times to spike with power against Aobajousai, Kageyama set the ball as close to the net as possible so Hinata can gently flick the ball over the net.Episode 24 of season 2 Trivia *Favorite Food: Tamago Kake Gohan. *Current Concern: He can't catch a ball one-handed. *His star sign is Cancer/Gemini cusp. *When Hinata feels scared or threatened, he instinctively hides behind the nearest person. * Hinata is the oldest first year on the team. *In the first popularity poll, Hinata was ranked 2nd, after Kageyama with 6,058 votes. In the second popularity poll, he was ranked 1st with 12,720. *Hinata's jumping ability is similar to Kagami Taiga's jumping ability. (Kagami Taiga is a main character in the anime "Kuroko no Basuke.") The only difference, however, is their height. Kagami is less than a foot (less than thirty centimeters) taller than Hinata. *Hinata's jumping ability is described as flying by some opponent players. *In a poll conducted by Charapedia, a Japanese anime and manga character database that asked people which anime characters they would choose as the basis for their children's name, Hinata came in 8th with 104 votes among female respondentshttp://www.charapedia.jp/research/0076/3/. *In Haikyū!!: One Shot, Hinata was not a first year regular. Hinata and Kageyama had actually formed their "Odd-ball Combo" during a match against another school and not in a 3-on-3 against Tsukishima, Yamaguchi, and Daichi. *Before studying prior to the Tokyo Expedition Arc, Hinata has stated that he has never had a double-digit score on any of his quizzes at school. *Part of Hinata's first name and part of Kageyama's first name when combined will form the word "Hishō" (飛翔), which means "to soar" or "flight". *Since part of Hinata's name means "sun" and part of Tsukishima's name means "moon," the two characters are enemies, though on the same team. *Hinata's worst subject is English. His voice actor Murase Ayumu, however, was born in America (Los Angeles) and is able to speak English. *In regards to his name, Furudate wrote, "I gave him this name with the image of “sun” and “flying” in mind."Haikyū!! Guidebook * Nomenclature ** Shōyō (翔陽) can be read as "flying heaven" *** While actually "yō" has different meanings, which are: "sunshine, yang principle, positive, male, heaven, or daytime". *** His family name Hinata (日向) can be read as "place in the sun". References }} Category:Characters Category:Male Characters Category:Yukigaoka Junior High Volleyball Club Category:Karasuno High Volleyball Club Category:Middle Blockers Category:1st Year